Tom Harris, also known as The Hill Country Gardener, is a Master Gardener certified by the State of Texas, a Master Pruner certified by the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and a founder and volunteer for the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas (GVST).

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Valuable Lesson

Doing a yard audit the other day, I learned a valuable lesson that affects you who read this article all the time. That lesson was: don’t take too literally all the things I mention in the article. For example, if I say that so-and-so product is good for your lawn, don’t go out and buy that product and put it on your lawn. What it means is that if you have the type of problem that the product fixes, THEN you may need to use the product. Don’t just go buy some and put it on your lawn. You may not need it and it might do more damage than good in your case. Either way, if you think you might have a problem, the best thing to do is find out for sure what the problem is FIRST, they find out what the fix is. OK? If you’re in doubt, write to me at gardener@gvtc.com and we can discuss it.

Drought Recovery, Part II

Last week I started talking about how to recover what’s left of your yard caused by the serious drought damage of last summer. Dana Nichols’ series of articles in her SAWS newsletter are doing a great job of outline what to do and, sometimes, how to do it. Dana is the outdoor conservation manager at SAWS. If you have any questions about what you read, be sure to send me an email and I’ll clarify if I can.

“Here’s the 4-1-1, the scoop, the dirt: Soil is the foundation for a healthy, drought-tolerant landscape.

If you have deep soil – like most who live in central San Antonio – good for you. It’s probably heavy clay, but with added organic matter you have a wide variety of plants to choose from that require little additional work.

Homes located farther north and northwest have a greater challenge because soil is very shallow. In fact, grass is something you should definitely limit or even eliminate from your plan. If grass is a must, be prepared to haul in soil and compost to a minimum depth of 6 inches and pay close attention to drainage issues.

If you live on the far south side of the city, then you likely have sandy soil. While it makes for easy digging, sandy soil has little organic matter. Adding organic matter is where you want to focus your efforts.

Once you’ve determined your soil situation, decide on plant material and overall landscape design based on the amount of time, money and effort required for your various options. If soil is the limiting factor, start thinking about adding and expanding your hardscape and looking for plants that perform well in thin soils. If you have heavy clay, choose plants that require minimal drainage; conversely, plants that require a lot of drainage do well in sandy soil.

Changing the soil characteristics or sun and shade patterns of your landscape can be difficult and costly. Save money and effort by considering these factors first when planning your low maintenance, drought-tolerant landscape.”

The third in the series of Drought Recovery newsletters from SAWS was written by Mark Peterson who is a conservation project coordinator for SAWS. Some of you may remember that Mark was a forester with the Texas Forest Service for many years. I’m not sure, but I think all those years just turned him against grass. It’s pretty obvious in this next part.

“When it comes to your lawn, how much is too much? Before World War II, lawns were not a major component of the American landscape. But with the explosion of suburbia, large expanses of grass became commonplace.

Things began to change in the ’70s with evidence that chemicals from our lawns were polluting streams and lakes. Others began questioning whether lawns were important enough to permit a limited resource like fresh water to be used on them. This year, we South Texans have begun to wonder why we have lawns at all.

Add up all the heat, drought, chemicals, fuel, water, labor and regulations, and it’s a wonder why anyone would even desire a big yard. This year – with the region’s worst drought in decades still looming over us – many people have simply let their lawns die. Sure, recent rains have helped, but technically, we’re still in a drought. The best solution is to minimize the amount of grass in your landscape.

Reducing a typical landscape from 75 percent turf to less than 50 percent can shrink your outdoor watering bill significantly. Why? Flowering perennials and shrubs use 50 percent less water than turf does. Expanding beds with mulch alone or combining them with a pervious hardscape can reduce your outdoor water bill even more.”

Here’s part 4 of the series. It concerns mulch and was written by Mark Peterson again. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph if you’re a SAWS customer.

“I confess. I love mulch. It’s a natural way to enhance organic matter and retain moisture in urban soils. Mulch is available in both organic and inorganic forms, and it comes in different shapes and sizes.

Most people think of mulches as raw or partially decomposed pieces of wood or bark. While this is true, mulches also consist of black plastic, straw, pine needles, pecan shells, and decomposed granite. All mulches reduce soil moisture evaporation, but I prefer the organic varieties because of the carbon they add to the soil.

Inorganic products like decomposed and rolled granite types are incorporated into the landscape to facilitate drainage for xeric plants.

What else can mulch do for you? Mulch reduces soil temperature to facilitate root growth, inhibits weed germination and growth, and encourages beneficial soil organisms like fungi and earthworms.

SAWS Conservation has a new rebate program for mulch. If you purchase a minimum of 3 cubic yards and provide before and after photos of the areas you covered with mulch to a depth of 2 inches, we will apply a $50 credit to your water bill. For more details, visit SAWS Web site or call the Conservation department at 704-SAVE.”

So there you have it. Four pretty good articles about how to recover from the drought-damage to your yard and a little on how to prevent it again (the mulch part).

Send your comments and/or questions to gardener@gvtc.com or see the website at www.thehillcountrygardener.com.